Nine out of 10 specialised brain cancer treatment centres in London to close to NHS patients

Friday 14 February 2014 09:05 BST

Closure: The centre at University College Hospital Londonwill be closed to NHS patients

Brain cancer patients today protested at leaked plans to close nine out of 10 specialised treatment centres in London to NHS patients.

The high-tech units pinpoint tumours using precisely-targeted radiotherapy, which can avoid the need for dangerous and expensive surgery. But London looks set to bear the brunt of a proposed cull of centres available for NHS patients in a nationwide review.

They include the Queen Square Radiosurgery Centre, at University College London Hospital, which invested in the latest stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) machine in a partnership between the private sector and NHS. Around 50 patients waiting for treatment have been told to transfer to other hospitals.

Christopher MacMeikan, a Shoreditch DJ, was being treated for a brain tumour there until NHS England wrote saying it was no longer commissioning the centre pending the review. He said: “My tumour is growing as we speak but I have been told I cannot be treated at the centre that has been looking after me. It is so stupid because this is probably the best neurosurgery unit in the world. ”

Mr MacMeikan said he would have to go back to his GP and join a waiting list to be seen elsewhere.

Doctors say the SRS machine at Queen Square Centre has been lying almost idle since last April because NHS England is no longer willing to pay.

Leaked details of a national review by a senior NHS official suggest that all but one — or two at most — centres in London would be closed to NHS patients. Across the country, between 11 and 18 out of 25 such centres would close to NHS patients under the plans.

NHS England said there was “excess capacity... across the current providers” of advanced radiotherapy but private centres could stay open if they could attract private patients.